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Connectivity patterns and processes along a gradient of European landscapes with woody vegetation and spatial heterogeneity WOODNET

2016-2020 Coordinators: BAGAP research unit and OSUR BAGAP Contact: Jacques Baudry BAGAP Research Areas : Landscape modeling and analysis, Biodiversity conservation in rural and urban areas, Biodiversity and biological regulation Website (under construction) Keywords: Remote sensing, permeability maps, connectivity models, bears, carabids, Iberian lynx, plants, biocontrol, scientific uncertainties, policy design

Research

Context and Objectives

WOODNET aims at providing innovative spatially-explicit tools for connectivity analysis  along a range of landscapes from forest and shrubland to agricultural landscapes where woody vegetation elements play a key role for conservation or service delivery.

Methodology

Novel satellite images permitting to describe the internal structure of landscape elements will produce improved resistance maps, considering landscape characteristics at different scales. New connectivity models based on a diversity of possible pathways for species movements through landscapes will be produced. WOODNET also considers the effect of landscape legacies on current species distribution. The biological models are diverse, from bears and lynx for large landscapes dominated by forests or shrublands to beetles, plants, birds for landscapes characterized by hedgerows.

The involvement of stakeholders at different scales will permit to further discuss the links between research design and its outputs on GBIs implementation and management.

Expected Results

We will provide new tools for the enhancing connectivity analysis of a diversity of functional networks, together with an evaluation of the synergies and antagonisms among them. We will, for arable crops, study how landscape connectivity drives the distribution of pest and beneficial arthropods and the associated (dis)services. The project also discusses science-policy interface and legal connectivity issues, focusing on how law may integrate connectivity science, stakeholders knowledge and scientific uncertainty to inform policy.  This is an important point for discussion with stakeholders. We will decipher the different sources of scientific uncertainties, and their consequences on the design of the legal framework of GBIs.

BAGAP Staff Involved

Jacques Baudry, Hugues Boussard, Audrey Alignier

Partners

• OSUR : Coordination administrative du projet
• CNRS – Université de Rennes 1 UMR ECOBIO
• CNRS – Université de Rennes 1 : IODE 
• CNRS – Université de Rennes 2 : LETG 
• Université Picardie Jules Verne : EDYSAN 
• ETSI Montes Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Forestal y del Medio Natural 
• Catholic University of Louvain

Funding

• France: French National Research Agency
• Spain: MINECO
• Belgium: BELSPO